


what happens in crafting club

by adamantine



Category: Free!
Genre: (as in Japanese OL), Alternate Universe - Office, F/F, Office Ladies AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7536388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adamantine/pseuds/adamantine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...definitely doesn't stay in crafting club. <strike>I'm sorry I couldn't think of a real title.</strike></p><p>Written for SASO. The prompt was:</p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <i>Tiya: "I have a new crafting friend."<br/>Melissa: "Does that mean a scissoring friend?"</i>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>ETA: oh my god don't AO3 in the middle of the night somehow I tagged this with major character death? welp</p>
            </blockquote>





	what happens in crafting club

“Haru-chan, you seem happier lately.”

Haruka looks up from her lap, where a neatly packed bento box is resting on top of an Iwatobi-chan furoshiki, and considers Nagisa’s words.

“Do I?” A group of salaryman walk by the bench Haruka and Nagisa are eating lunch on; one of them turns his head and stares, his eyes gone wide. His interest in them annoys Haruka. She stabs a radish in irritation.

“Definitely,” Nagisa chirps, “Did something good happen?”

There is only one thing in Haruka’s life that has changed recently. Though more accurately it isn’t a thing, but a person, a new person she’s met that isn’t like anyone else she’s ever met before.

“I have a new crafting friend.”

“Does that mean a scissoring friend?” Nagisa asks.

Haruka scowls at her innuendo. “In crafting club. I made a new friend in crafting club.”

Nagisa giggles. “Is she pretty?”

“She’s just a friend.” Haruka wants the conversation to be over. She’s said too much already.

“What’s this new friend’s name?” Nagisa says “friend” as though it means something else, something that makes Haruka’s heart constrict in longing.

“Rin.” Haruka unhappily supplies, knowing Nagisa will get it out of her eventually anyway.

“Rin-chan, eh?”

Haruka nods. “Did you get Rei’s memo?” she asks, and Nagisa bursts into a tirade of complaints. Rei is their “new” manager (six months now; Haruka isn’t sure if that still qualifies as new, but Nagisa thinks it does). She’s a university graduate, unlike Haruka and Nagisa, which is why she’s their manager despite just starting in the company.

Nagisa pretends she doesn’t get along well with Rei, but it’s an obvious act. Rei is too serious, too much of a perfectionist, Nagisa complains every time Rei sends out a new passive aggressive memo aimed at Nagisa. Haruka is pretty sure it’s only a matter of time before Nagisa asks Rei out, at which point Rei will likely have a heart attack, having not realized the more Nagisa annoys someone, the more she likes them.

Haruka eats her lunch, satisfied that Nagisa will not be bringing up Rin anytime soon, not when Nagisa has so much to say about Rei.

* * *

 

Haruka’s crafting club meets once a week in an arts and crafts store two stops from her apartment. The store itself is roomy and well-stocked, with workers that are helpful but not overly so. It’s one of Haruka’s favorite places in the city.

Crafting club isn’t a formal club with rules. It’s a weekly themed meeting in the back of the store, where there are tables set up for customers—in this case members of crafting club—to work on whatever projects strike their fancy. The store offers access to some supplies for free, but for the most part people either bring their own or buy them right then are there. Haruka is pretty sure a good chunk of the store’s revenue comes from crafting club. She certainly ends up buying something every week; it’s impossible to not be tempted surrounded by that many beautiful supplies.

Haruka rarely misses a meeting. She’s a super regular. Everyone that works in the store knows her, which means they’re careful to not annoy her, leaving her to do her own thing. She rarely pays attention to the theme of the week, which the store advertises weeks in advance. It helps them bring in the one time members, the people who stop by the store one day and see a theme they like, showing up for that evening’s meeting only, never to be seen again.

Rin’s first time in crafting club is at the start of spring. The advertised project for the evening is a cherry blossom tree painted on canvas, with pink tissue paper crumpled and glued on to make blossoms. Haruka thinks the project is tacky; she makes makes abstract tissue paper art instead.

“Excuse me, I’m not sure which glue to use.” It’s the first thing Rin ever says to her, and Haruka is sure she’ll remember it for the rest of her life. She has no idea why Rin has chosen to ask her of all people, she’s sitting alone, not even working on the same project as everyone else, but Rin does and Haruka will think back to this moment later like it’s a miracle.

Haruka grabs her glue and hands it to Rin, completely silent. She’s not the talkative type, even less so with strangers, but that’s not what happens that night; that night she’s tongue tied—Rin is the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen and Haruka doesn’t even remember how to breathe, let alone talk, in her presence.

“Oh no, I don’t mean to take your glue.” Rin tries to hand the glue back to Haruka.

Haruka shakes her head, refusing to take it out of her hands.

“I’m finished anyway.” It’s a lie, an obvious lie, the canvas she’s been decorating with tissue paper is only half completed.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Haruka stands up and turns her back to Rin, and shoves her project, not yet dried, and the supplies she’s thrown everywhere into her bag, and rushes out of the store, not once checking to see Rin’s reaction.

Needless to say, she’s shocked when the next week Rin is there again, sitting near the spot Haruka habitually claims for herself. Rin doesn’t say anything to her that week until the end of the meeting where she gives Haruka a new bottle of glue and introduces herself. Haruka is sure this means she won’t be back again, her mission accomplished, but she does come back, again and again, until she’s officially a super regular to the club like Haruka. Even though everyone in the club seems to like her, she sits in the back of the store near Haruka; throwing occasional glances in Haruka’s direction, which Haruka tells herself is because she’s looking at the clock above Haruka’s head, even though Rin's gaze is never high enough for that. They don’t talk much, but Rin starts walking with her to the station despite, as Haruka later learns, living in the opposite direction, within walking distance from the store.

* * *

 

Haruka and Nagisa decide to go out for lunch. It’s Friday and both of them are sick of bento.

Haruka wants sushi; Nagisa wants meat.

Nagisa wins.

The yakiniku place they go to has a healthy lunch crowd. They have to wait a bit outside for seating. Nagisa chats about a television show she’s just marathoned. Haruka is only half-listening to her as she people watches. In this part of the city it’s mostly offices. There are salarymen and office ladies everywhere going to lunch, or on benches, eating.

Haruka thinks she’s seeing things at first. Rin is never far from her mind these days. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s saw red hair in a crowd and jumped to wrong conclusions, but this time the red hair is attached to a woman with a sharp smile, dressed in a red skirt and red vest, a red and black polka dotted ribbon around her neck. It’s the office lady uniform for a company Haruka recognizes—because they’re in the building next to where Haruka works.

“Haru-chan, hurry up.” Nagisa headbutts her; there’s a table ready for them. Haruka doesn’t care, she can’t tear her eyes off of Rin. She’s across the street, walking next to a taller, dark-haired woman; Haru’s legs move before she can think about what she’s doing.

“Rin!” She shouts. She never shouts. People stare at her; she doesn’t care.

Rin’s head swings towards her, confusion on her face before her eyes find Haruka’s, and then her eyes shine and she breaks into a smile that could melt ice.

“Haru,” she says, and Haru’s insides warm at the nickname.

“Hi,” Haruka says. She’s never seen Rin in the sunlight before, has never seen her in work clothes, has never talked to her outside of Wednesday nights. Her legs feel wobbly.

Rin says something to the girl beside her. The girl nods and waves, walking off somewhere as Rin runs across the street to where Haruka is standing.

“Hi, yourself.” Rin is still smiling, but there’s something almost shy about it, which seems ridiculous since she’s just run across the street to talk to her.

“Haaaaruuuu-chan,” Nagisa drags out her name in good-natured irritation, “we lost our table. Now we have to wait for the next one. Oh, who’s this? No—don’t tell me! Red hair, beautiful smile, perfect figure—you must be Rin-chan!”

Haruka wants to punch her. She has never said Rin has a beautiful smile or a perfect figure, and now Rin is going to think she has. Why does Nagisa always have to ruin every—Haruka’s angry thoughts die when she sees that Rin is blushing.

“Do you want to have lunch with us?” Haruka asks, not sure if she wants Rin to say yes or no, only knowing that either way she will die, either because she’s certain Nagisa will embarrass her, or from devastation if Rin turns her down.

“I’d love to,” Rin says.

The whole world seems shift. The sun is just the right amount of bright. Aches and pains Haruka didn’t know she was suffering from disappear. She’s on fire but in a way that’s a relief, a release of energy she’s held on to too long. Haruka turns around to tell the hostess one more person will be joining their party and misses the way Rin’s eyes flash in wonder because Haruka’s smile is dazzling and it’s the first time Rin has seen it so wide.

**Author's Note:**

> The crafts in question:
> 
>  
> 
> [The abstract tissue paper art Haru is doing is something like this.](http://www.michaels.com/tissue-paper-art/B_66571.html)
> 
>  
> 
> Rin's cherry blossom tree project is based on [this](http://www.meetthedubiens.com/2010/04/craft-cherry-blossom-branch.html) and [this](http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2011/05/popcorn-popping-painting.html).


End file.
